Coffee Cocoa Olive Oil Cake

Hey guys! I am so excited to share this recipe. I developed it from scratch, and it is just the best.

It has no sugar – only 1 cup of cake flour, and you can use either butter or olive oil. I highly recommend the olive oil, the subtle flavor profile it gives the cake goes really well with the coffee and cocoa tones.

No Sugar!

The no sugar part… Well that is one of my old baking hacks, in the days when I really used to throw things together and break all of the rules. I had a lot (think a lot a lot) of flops and failures. But one of the really awesome things I discovered is sweetening cakes with blended raisins! And if you are about to leave my website completely after that last statement, hold on.

Processed raisins make one of the best natural sweeteners for cakes! Once baked, the signature raisin flavor almost disappears. And you get left with a sweet cake full of fibre, B vitamins, iron and potassium and all the rest that makes raisins so healthy.

Personally I don’t really like the taste of raisins. Except in porridge. I find it difficult to eat the on their own – and I often feel guilty that I do not make use of their super potent source of iron! That is why baking them into a cake, where the taste disappears, just makes me happy all over. If anything, they land a toffee / caramel like flavor!

Coffee!

Which brings me to the next aspect of this cake – the coffee flavor. YUM! You can use brewed filter coffee, or 3 flat teaspoons of instant coffee. Up to you. I actually liked the instant coffee final taste better!

And if you do not like coffee flavored cakes, then you can leave it out completely.

Olive Oil

Did you know that olive oil is use extensively in mediterranean baking? I thought it was some trendy fad – you know, one of those that sounds great on paper, but is yucky in real life: S -but it is actually a traditional ingredient. What is more, olive oil is quite a celebrated baking item because it creates a ‘superior crumb’.

Please don’t think I am a baking fundi because I said that – it’s just a sign of too much cake research.

Olive oil is also supposed to give great flavor (???) to cakes. Crazy right?

Well, I had to try it to see what all the fuss was about. And hey – it’s good. Really good actually. The olive oil flavor effect is spot on. I guess it’s one of those weird flavor things like chilli and chocolate, or salt and chocolate. Or in this case olive oil and chocolate!

If however the whole idea is just unappealing, or you have tried baking with olive oil and hate it, then you can totally swop out the olive oil quantity below for butter. I have made this cake both ways, and it is fine either way. Just the amount of butter/olive oil varies (will include both amounts in recipe).

How to Get a Fluffy Texture Using Olive Oil In Baking Instead of Butter

One of the big things I hear with baking with olive oil is that it does not really cream as well as butter. Creaming butter aerates it and incorporates tiny air bubbles into the butter which helps to lighten the cake.

Beat the Egg White Well

Because olive oil is not ‘solid’ like butter, this does not work as well. So, to make up for this, you need to beat the egg whites really well – separately to everything else. Beat them until the cows come home and they form stiff peaks.

When folding these lovely stiff egg whites into your batter, do it gently and slowly, so as not to loose any of their precious puff.

Use Fresh Raising Agents

Anybody who does much baking will tell you that you must always make sure that your raising agents are fresh, otherwise your cake will not rise – and be dense and heavy. Anybody who has seen me operate in baking mode will know that positive thinking and optimism will not help to raise a cake without fresh raising agents.

Nope. I have tried this dear readers – using ancient baking soda, and telling myself enthusiastically that all will be well and the baking pro’s have it all wrong.

But alas, they have it ALL right, and fresh baking soda and bicarb are really essential to getting a nice fluffy cake after baking. Especially if you are using a non aerating fat such as olive oil in your recipe.

Topping

So, that about tops it off… except for the topping! I used tamarillo mousse to top it. I really like the contrast between the flavors! However the Troll did not like the tartness from the mousse… So I am including a quick recipe for a alternative topping, which is the same in flavor as the cake – coffee and cocoa.

What Do You Think?

I want to start a system, where I schedule new posts to come out on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. I was thinking that if I am unknowing gaining readers who come and check back to see if there are any new recipes, it would be nice for them if there were set days on which recipes came out. Is this a thing, or am I imagining it? I get super amped to check my favorite blogs to see if there is a new post, and I love the ones where I know what day it is – but maybe I am the only nut out there!

Coffee Cocoa Olive Oil Cake

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Serves: hmmmm Prep Time: 30 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 cup coffee (instant or filter)
• 1 1/4 cup olive oil (or 1 cup butter)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup cocoa
• 1 cup flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 tablespoons vanilla essence
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (if you are using butter instead of olive oil, and it is salted - omit this salt)

Instructions

Prep Steps

1. First off, take out your raisins, and make a cup of coffee : ). Combine the coffee and the raisins. You can do this the night before, to fully hydrate the raisins and make them soft for blending – or just do it first thing, and by the time you need to blend the raisins and coffee they should have softened a little.
2. If you are choosing to use butter instead of the olive oil, then you must get it to room temperature before beginning to assemble your cake. If you are using the olive oil, you can of course skip this. What I do, if I forge to take the butter out before hand (which is about 90 – no- 100% of the time) is to cut it up thinly and spread the butter slices onto a plate. This I put into the sun, and it usually softens within 15 minutes. But hopefully you are trying the olive oil method, because it is just so yummy!

Assembling the Cake

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).
2. Line a 9 inch baking tin with parchment paper and butter and flour the sides. I love to use the ones with the detachable sides!!! Never break a cake again trying to get it out of the tin. : )
3. Separate your eggs. Drop the whites into a container in which you are beat them. Drop the yolks into a large bowl.
4. Beat the eggs until the are form stiff peaks. This could take 8 – 10  minutes.
5. Now  add the olive oil to the egg yolks. Beat this for 4 minutes. You won’t get that much aeration, but it is just as well to well combine the yolks and the olive and try to cream it a little.
6. Now blend the raisins and coffee. I use my trusty stick blender. But I think you can use a regular blender or food processor. Try to process them down to a creamy consistency.
7. Add the creamed raisin mix to the big bowl. Combine.
8. Now sift in the dry ingredients.
9. Fold in.
10. Pour out 3/4 cup of milk and dissolve into it the raising agents.
11. Add this to the mix and combine.
12. Now fold in the egg whites. You can do this 1/4 at a time. This will help to lighten and leaven the cake.
13. Now pour into your pan, and place into the oven.
14. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a skewers, knife or toothpick comes out clean.
15. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. If the tin is cool enough to handle, pop out the cake and leave to cool for another hour on the wire rack before covering with a topping.

Toppings

If you live in a place where there are tamarillos, you can try out the tamarillo mousse topping. If you prefer a more cozy tasting topping, then go for this coffee and chocolate one below. We tried it and it is awesome

No-Sugar Coffee and Cocoa Mousse Icing

1. Soak 1 1/2 cups raisins in 1 cup coffee for 2 hours.
2. Pour off any excess coffee.
3. Add 3/4 cups coconut oil.
4. Blend thoroughly.
5. Stir in 4 tablespoons cocoa. You can also leave the cocoa out, makes a nice contrast with the cake! If you find that you want a stronger coffee flavor, and you have instant coffee, add in a little at a time until it is the strength that you want it.

Coffee Cocoa Olive Oil Cake was last modified: August 26th, 2017 by Daniela Klein

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